I think i found the underlying error in the ui.so file provided by
gnome-python2-2.9.4-2 package
strings /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gnome/ui.so |grep
gnomevfs
libgnomevfs-2.so.0
could not import gnomevfs
start up the python shell and try this
>>> from gnome.ui import *
Fatal Python error: could not import gnomevfs
Aborted
This probably needs to be reassigned to gnome-python2 package.
-jef

okay i just confirmed it... i hacked up a rebuild of the gnome-python2
in fc3 against python2.4 and install those packages.
I can now get python based applications to work again including
up2date and system-config-network
The 'could not import gnomevfs' is almost certaintly in the ui.so from
gnome-python2 in the development tree but i don't know exactly whats
wrong with it.
This really should be refiled against gnome-python2
-jef